1st Edition

Personal Identity and Literature

By Patrick Colm Hogan Copyright 2020
    192 Pages
    by Routledge

    192 Pages
    by Routledge

    In Personal Identity and Literature, Hogan examines what makes an individual a particular, unique self. He draws on cognitive and affective science as well as literary works - from Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass to Dorothy Richardson, Alice Munro, and J. M. Coetzee. His scholarly analyses are also intertwined with more personal reflections, on for example his mother’s memory loss. The result is a work that examines a complex topic by drawing on a unique range of resources, from empirical psychology and philosophy to novels, films, and biographical experiences. The book provides a clear, systematic account of personal identity that is theoretically strong, but also unique and engaging.

    Foreword: Shame  Introduction: Know Thyself  1. Basic Principles  2. Kinds of Self  3. Becoming Oneself: Society and Identity  4. Understanding Ourselves: On Empathy   5. Shame, Guilt, and Trauma  6. Subjectivity and Loneliness  Afterword: A Question of Dignity  Works Cited

    Biography

    Patrick Colm Hogan is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and the Program in Cognitive Science at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of over twenty books, including Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists (Routledge, 2003), Ulysses and the Poetics of Cognition (Routledge, 2013), and Literature and Emotion (Routledge, 2018).